Digital Health Literacy of the Population in Germany and Its Association With Physical Health, Mental Health, Life Satisfaction, and Health Behaviors: Nationally Representative Survey Study

Abstract

BackgroundDigital health literacy, also known as eHealth literacy, describes the ability to seek, find, understand, and apply health information from the internet to address health problems. The World Health Organization calls for actions to improve digital health literacy. To develop target group–specific digital health literacy interventions, it is necessary to know the digital health literacy of the general population and relevant subgroups. ObjectiveThis study aims to representatively assess the digital health literacy of the population in Germany and relevant subgroups. The results are meant to facilitate the development of target group–specific digital health literacy interventions. Additionally, this study further explores the associations between digital health literacy and physical health, mental health, life satisfaction, and diverse health behaviors. MethodsStudy participants were drawn from a representative panel of the German-speaking population with internet access. To further increase the representativeness of the sample, survey weights were calculated using an iterative proportional fitting procedure. Participants answered a series of questionnaires regarding their digital health literacy, physical health, mental health, life satisfaction, and diverse health behaviors. Two-sided independent sample t tests were conducted to determine the significant differences between societal subgroups. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to explore the correlates of digital health literacy. ResultsDigital health literacy is unevenly distributed within German society. The results of this study suggest that people with a low level of formal education and people with a low social status would benefit from digital health literacy interventions that address their competencies in the domains of information seeking and information appraisal. Furthermore, the results suggest that older people would likely benefit from digital health literacy interventions that address their competencies in the domains of information seeking and also information appraisal. Regarding sex, this study suggests that men might benefit from digital health literacy interventions that specifically address their competencies in the domain of information seeking. Furthermore, digital health literacy is weakly positively correlated with physical health, mental health, life satisfaction, exercise routines, fruit consumption, and vegetable consumption. ConclusionsOverall, the results of this study demonstrate that digital health literacy is associated with diverse health outcomes and behaviors. Furthermore, the results provide a starting point for the development of target group–specific digital health literacy interventions.